Hand Hygiene – Simple Strategies to Break the Chain of Infection
The Health Quality Innovation Network (HQIN), the Quality Innovation Network-Quality Improvement Organization (QIN-QIO) for Virginia, has developed a variety of hand hygiene resources to provide nursing homes with practical ways to lower the risk of infection for residents and staff. You can download these educational tools for use during your in-services and huddles and to post throughout your facility.
Breaking the Chain of Infection
Practicing hand hygiene is a simple yet effective way to prevent infections. Clean hands are the single most important factor in preventing the spread of germs in healthcare settings.
What is Hand Hygiene?
Hand hygiene is a term referring to any action of hand cleansing. This includes applying alcohol-based hand rub OR washing hands with water and soap.
Hand Hygiene Guidance
Healthcare personnel should use an alcohol-based hand rub or wash with soap and water for the following clinical indications:
- immediately before touching a patient;
- before performing an aseptic task (e.g., placing an indwelling device) or handling invasive medical devices;
- before moving from work on a soiled body site to a clean body site on the same resident;
- after touching a resident or the resident’s immediate environment;
- after contact with blood, body fluids, or contaminated surfaces; and
- immediately after glove removal.
Important Reminders:
- Thumbs, fingertips, between fingers are the areas most often missed when using alcohol-based hand sanitizer.
- Glove use is not a substitute for cleaning your hands.
- After drying your hands, discard paper towel in waste basket and use a clean paper towel to turn off the faucet.
Simple Strategies to Prevent Infections
HQIN’s Simple Strategies to Prevent Infections provide you with practical ways to lower your residents’ and your risk of infection. These are staff education tools that can be quickly read and referenced. Click on the hyperlinks below to download each Simple Strategy.
Posters
Post the three posters below to remind staff and residents to clean their hands and not to touch their faces. Click on the hyperlinks to download each one.
In addition to being the QIN-QIO for Virginia, HQIN serves in this capacity for Kansas, Missouri, South Carolina. VHCA-VCAL thanks HQIN for allowing us to share these resources with members.
